Cops Handing Out Doritos Instead of Tickets at This Year's Hempfest

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Clay Graeber, 20, of Bothell, Wash., smokes marijuana from a glass bong at the opening day of the pro-marijuana rally Hempfest in 2012. This year, some attendees will get bags of Doritos with information on Washington's new pot law attached.

Updated at 2:33 PM CST on Thursday, Aug 15, 2013

Rather than writing tickets to pot smokers at this year's Hempfest in Seattle, police plan on handing out something a little more delectable.

The Seattle Police Department said they will pass out 1,000 bags of Doritos at the annual cannabis event taking place in Seattle this weekend.

Not only will the chips satisfy the munchies that inevitably ensues from a pot festival, but the police department will use the opportunity to inform smokers about Washington's new marijuana law by attaching a summary of the law to the bag of Doritos.

"When the laws changed, there was a bit of an informational vacuum about how police would react," police department spokesman Sgt. Sean Whitcomb told NBC News.

Voters passed a marijuana law in December that says it is no longer against the law for adults over 21 years old to possess up to an ounce of pot for personal use.

Police will still enforce aspects of the new law at Hempfest, which means officers will bust minors smoking in public, which is a misdemeanor and go after those dealing pot, which is a felony. And since it is still illegal to consume marijuana in public, officers will issue warnings to adults getting high, Whitcomb told the Seattle Times.

Seattle's Hemfest bills itself as the "world's largest event advocating cannabis law reform," according to the website.